mstrongs in her main battery.

_Don Juan de Austria_--Small cruiser, completed in 1887, iron, 1,152
tons, 13 to 14 knots, and four 4.7-inch rifles in her main battery.

_Don Antonio de Ulloa_--Small cruiser, iron, 1,152 tons. Four 4.7-inch
Hontoria guns; two 2.7-inch, two quick-firing; two 1.5-inch; five muzzle
loaders.

Gunboats _Paragua_, _Callao_, _Samar_, _Pampagna_, and _Arayat_, built
1881-6, steel, 137 tons, 10 knots, and each mounting two quick-firing
guns.

Gunboats _Mariveles_ and _Mindoro_, built in 1886 and 1885, iron, 142
tons, 10 knots, each mounting one 2.7-inch rifle and four machine guns.

Gunboat _Manileno_, built in 1887, wood, 142 tons, 9 knots, and mounting
three 3.5-inch rifles.

Gunboats _El Cano_ and _General Lezo_, built in 1885, iron, 528 tons, 10
to nearly 12 knots, and each mounting three 3.5-inch rifles.

Gunboat _Marquis Del Duero_, built in 1875, iron, 500 tons, 10 knots,
and mounting one 6.2-inch and two 4.7-inch rifles.

* * * * *

Through the bright sunshine and when the stars twinkled in the sky or
the full moon rode overhead, the American ships steamed to the southeast
across the heaving China Sea. The Stars and Stripes fluttered in the
breeze and there was a feeling of expectancy on board the grim engines
of war, that had laid aside every possible encumbrance, and like
prize-fighters were stripped to the buff and eager for battle.

The run was a smooth one, and as the sun was sinking in the sky
Commodore Dewey, peering through his glass, caught the faint outlines of
Corregidor Island, and dimly beyond the flickering haze revealed the
Spanish fleet in the calm bay. The Commodore had been in that part of
the world before, and while waiting at Hong Kong had gathered all the
knowledge possible of the defences of Manila. He knew the fort was
powerfully fortified and the bay mined, and knowing all this, he
remembered the exclamation of his immortal instructor in the science of
war, the peerless Farragut, when he was driving his squadron into Mobile
Bay. Recalling that occurrence, Commodore Dewey joined in spirit in
repeating the words:

"D---- the torpedoes!"

It was still many miles to the entrance, and night closed in while the
squadron was ploughing through the sea that broke in tumbling foam at
the bows and spread far away in snowy wakes at the rear. All lights were
put out, the full moon again climbed the sky and the shadowy leviathans
plu